Sweet November
by ItsALifesJourney
Summary: He's downstairs. With his kids. All six of them. She's still not sure how his other five perceive their daughter, she wonders if they'll ever see Bailey as one of them. ::Thanksgiving Day Prompt.::


**So this is just a little one shot I came up with based on the prompt below.**

**Anonymous asked: Fic prompt: Elliot and Olivia have a thanksgiving dinner planned with his children and their two year daughter. It ends up being a disaster.**

**Thanks Robyn (SVUJunkie2011)for the prompt and Cori for the quick beta job. **

**Hope you enjoy. **

. . .

She brushes her hair in front of the mirror, her face void of any makeup and her skin shimmering from the heat of the shower.

He's downstairs. With his kids. All six of them. She's still not sure how his other five perceive their daughter, she wonders if they'll ever see Bailey as one of them.

It's the first time the little one has ever been a part of a family gathering and it makes Olivia's heart ache. She'd never been a part of something festive and familial during this time of year growing up and she wants so much more for her and Elliot's daughter.

She wants them to accept the little girl so badly that the thought of her daughter feeling neglected today makes Olivia want to avoid going down there at all.

She puts on a pair of her black slacks and a nice red sweater she wouldn't normally wear to work and sprays a light coat of perfume on before applying the faintest hint of eye liner.

It's only Elliot's kids, all young adults now, with the exception of Eli and Bailey, so she shouldn't be this nervous. But she is. Taking a deep breath, she opens her bedroom door and heads downstairs, feeling her heart thump wildly in her chest.

. . .

"Liv, thought you were bailing on me for a second," Elliot mutters in her ear with a sly smile on his lips as he kisses her cheek.

"Nah, nah, I was just getting cleaned up. How're the kids?" she immediately asks, worry lining her voice for her daughter.

"Eh, they're all in the living room," he says timidly and his tone makes her nervous.

"How're they getting along? They say anything about Bailey?"

"No, they haven't and I don't expect them to. It'll just take a little getting used to for them. More the older ones. Eli doesn't really know any better."

"Well I hope they can let it go for today, I mean it's Thanksgiving after all."

"I know babe," he whispers as he grasps her by the hip and pulls her to him for a chaste kiss. "Don't worry so much and just enjoy the calmness so far. I don't think they've ever been this quiet when they're all together."

Sighing, Olivia runs a hand through the waves in her hair. "Okay," she whispers with a small smile on her lips as she heads over to check the turkey in the oven. "Can you uncover all the sides? It's almost time."

Smiling coyly, he nods and she almost wants to slap him. "Call me Susie Homemaker and you won't be able to have sex for awhile," she smirks.

His grins falters a bit but he playfully saunters over to the counter where the sides his kids brought sit.

. . .

"So, how long have you and dad been together? I mean you do have a two year old now," Elizabeth asks.

Elliot clears his throat and answers for Olivia. "After I left the force, I didn't see Liv in almost the whole time I went away. We got together a few months after I came back and then a few months after that, Bailey came into the picture," he grins as he sees Olivia's flush and push a piece of turkey around on her plate.

"So you two got together during the divorce or after?" Kathleen pipes in condescendingly. "I mean, we hadn't really seen you much. Of course Maureen and I had lives of our own but I'm sure Rick and Liz didn't expect to you show up with another kid, dad."

"Kath," Elliot warns. "Your mother and I decided to split months before I left the force. We'd been struggling. You know this. After the shooting, we finally drifted so far apart that I sent her the papers this time."

"Oh… so you used that as an excuse to finally shack up with your partner. Gotcha," Kathleen spits out as she tosses her napkin onto the table. "And now after all this time you want to play house with all of your kids. I don't know dad, sounds sketchy."

"Kathleen," Maureen scolds, the older sister glancing back and forth between her sister, her dad and his partner while their little girl sits in a booster seat next to her oblivious to the conversation going on. "This is not the time to be discussing this. Grow up," she grates. "Bailey doesn't deserve this and neither do Liv and and Dad. They did nothing wrong."

"Yeah, that's always the case isn't it? Well you guys have a nice time and pretend everyting's fine while the rest of the family can't even have a decent dinner because Dad would rather go off and make babies with his partner he "swears" he never had feelings for instead of letting us know where the hell he's at or what he's doing. Me, I'm out of here."

Everyone sits at the table silently as the middle Stabler daughter, still a child in her own right, storms out of the kitchen and pushes open the sliding doors leading onto the back deck of her father's new house.

"I'm sorry Dad," Dickie pipes up. "We all don't think that way," the young man assures his father. "I was mad you kind of disappeared but we all knew you were in a bad place and you never stopped contacting us, even if it was just a phone call. We know you love Liv and vice versa, I guess what Kath means is that you just showed up one day with another kid. You could have told us you were seeing each other."

"I know son," Elliot mutters as he stares at his full plate of food, having lost his appetite entirely. "I know I could've handled the events in my life after leaving SVU better but I swear I thought I was doing you kids and your mom a favor by staying out of the way. Calling you was the only thing I felt I could do right for you guys then- I'm sorry."

Olivia finally joins the conversation, having been watching her baby girl fidget in her seat as the toddler watched a pea roll around on her place in wonderment.

"Elliot, it's not your fault. We all love you. And I promise you all," she says looking his older children in the eyes, "Your father and I wanted to have this with you because we truly wanted to explain to all of you about everything that's been going on. Not to just throw this all on you. You know I wouldn't do something so callous to any of you. I've loved you all like my own since you were young. You know me better than that," she pleads, her voice trembling at the thought of this dinner turning out exactly as she'd feared. A disaster.

The kids all nod but they all look at their plates, no one touching their food. Olivia bites her bottom lip and tries to keep the tears at bay.

With a quick nod of her head, she stands from the table and walks over to her daughter and picks her up. "Say bye bye to your brothers and sisters. It's time for your nap," she tells the little girl, but in all honesty, she's just using this as an excuse to get out of the suffocating atmosphere inside the dining room.

. . .

When he walks into their bedroom an hour later, he sees her lying on their king sized bed, their toddler sleeping peacefully on a large pillow next to her mother's head.

Olivia's eyes are closed but he can see the tear tracks on her cheeks and his anxiety rises over the fact that she didn't deserve any of this.

And neither did their daughter.

He understands his other kids' grief but he knows they all do understand he and his ex wife had drifted apart years ago and that's what he holds onto.

He also knows he raised them batter than to hold a grudge over an innocent child who looks so peaceful resting next to her mama. The perfect clone of her mother and another piece of his heart he can't stand to see hurt in any way whether or not she understands any of this at the moment.

He kicks off his shoes, crawls up the bed and rests behind Olivia, wrapping his arms round her waist after lightly brushing his daughter's dark bangs from her little forehead.

"They all left," he whispers into Olivia's ear and he's not surprised to find her still awake when she responds softly.

"I'm sorry, that was awful down there."

"Don't worry about it. Kathleen may be twenty-four but she's still a kid when it comes to her parents. I hope you don't believe what she said."

Sniffiling , she shakes her head against the pillow. "No, I understand. I wish I had convinced you to tell them about us sooner. But I didn't want to push you after everything that had happened."

"It's over. It's happened. We have a little girl to worry about. I still see Eli and we still have a family. They'll understand eventually because none of us did anything wrong."

"I believe you," she whispers as she cranes her neck to look at him. "I love you, Elliot."

"I love you too, so much," he whispers into her hair as he spoons her from behind. "Happy Thanksgiving."

. . .

Thanks for reading and excuse my use of Kathleen being the cliched annoying one lol. Please feel free to let me know what you thought. :)


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